Venue: Tottenham

I must admit since the 2016 referendum I have been very hit and miss with Question Time. I am not a fan at all. I was a bit aghast to find it was being broadcast from Tottenham, so I was not expecting a friendly audience to a Puffin point of view. I was also a bit surprised to see two Tory MP’s on there. I suspect the reason for this is they are both respective supporters of the two Tory leadership contenders. Tonight, also has two Leavers – amazing.

It was a bit of a strange one this QT as the audience seemed to drive it – the panel just gave them lip service. The audience, or mob, were a real eclectic mix: a pink haired pixie, a grandmother with fourteen grandkids and a Vicar. Usual suspects were in there too; NHS doctor, community worker, blah blah. I imagine the auditions for Gogglebox have the same type of people.

The first bit was all about Boris. It was a hit job. Kwasi did a competent job in defending him. Margot James was a Rory supporter now an “anyone one but Boris supporter” so she rubbished Boris and gave lukewarm support to Hunt. Pidcock is a female Owen Jones so she went off on a racist, deplorable, Islamophobic type rant. Tim Martin gave a bit of a defence and Ed Davey just said some usual losers vote bollocks.

A French old dear asked some question about how can we leave with parliament not backing no deal and the WA being a pile of kak-a-shaka. Again usual noise from panel, no-one really shining. The only thing I though interesting was Kwasi Kwarteng stated that BoJo will have us out on the 31st October with no-deal if needs be! Tim Martin was attacked by a pink haired pixie plant which seemed a bit strange but didn’t come to much. Pidcock tried to get Trump Derangement in, with the NHS is going to sold off to the USA or some other bollocks. I have to admit I was starting to struggle to keep my interest.

The next bit made me very happy to live 250 miles north of London in a semi-rural village where we still have a reasonably strong community. A Vicar asked a question about what can be done about the stab-a-thon epidemic in London. Again predicable, Police cuts, kids have nothing to do so its quite reasonable to expect them to carve each other up. Lots of audience noise and accounts of people the audience members know/knew getting stabbed, people frightened walking home from school, “it’s a yung person fing” etc etc . One audience member asked “where are the parents?” and that people should know the difference between “right and wrong.” Two people clapped…..

“Diamond and Silk” got their 5 mins of fame and the grandma one was quite eloquent with her knife crime soundbites, it was like, they had been rehearsed. Shirley not. Tim Martin talked himself into a cul-de-sac by clumsily using the word “fashion” to describe knife crime, this got him some audience aggro. The audience participants made Tottenham come across as a diverse shithole what nobody is bothered about, probably because Tottenham is a diverse shithole that nobody is bothered about.

The last question was about mandatory vaccinations for kids, this was as welcome as a fart under a duvet. Again blah, blah, blah.

So, in summary, Diabolic performance by the four MP’s and an uncharacteristically lacklustre Tim Martin. The anger was directed at the MPs and they were collectively berated by the audience. To be fair, quite rightly so. The panel just made the usual virtue signals, platitudes and blamed each other.

The lives of the people of Tottenham are a million miles away from my own, but they were right to tell MPs they wanted some action not just words. It makes me wonder if the problems can be really solved by Westminster politicians, the audience seem to think it is about more money for public services, which must have some effect, but I think the break down in a cohesive, self-regulating society where people take responsibility for their actions has caused the majority of these problems. This cannot be fixed with soft touch legislation or state interference from this bizarre Westminster bubble.

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